I need to drink more (or possibly less)

It is strange to me, how quickly New Orleans seems to have slipped from the forefront of our national consciousness [...]

Here's the entry I should have posted.

How many dead are there? As soon as the number started emerging, I felt like there was something wrong. The estimates and then the numbers reported weren't even close. The actuals were too accurate, too soon; something was wrong here; the numbers were being fudged. Not out of malice - I'm not a conspiracy loon - but out of wishful thinking. Yes, I accept the 10,000 or more of some early assessments was excessively pessimistic, but the death toll reported since rings no more true.

Know what? It sounds like something else.

You have a body count for Iraq. It's a number comprising solely US military fatalities, on the ground, in Iraq. Those who think a little more - and give a shit about the wogs - know the number of dead human beings is much, much, much higher. But what's missing? Let's see.

Some are saying those US troops who die after being evacuated from Iraq are not being counted. Is this true? It should not be difficult to determine: it just takes one mother who doesn't see her son's name on a supposedly comprehensive list. I tend to think that if there was any obfuscation going on there, if would be exposed fairly promptly.

But.

There's an awful lot of non-military personnel in there. Blackwater. Halliburton. Fijian ex-UN peacekeepers who found the work and money attractive. More. How are they counted? Are they counted? Who can connect all the numbers.

It's not lies, it's not a conspiracy, but it's callous and it's cynical and it's opaque. We're watching the dots when we should be joining them.